In the automotive industry, the two major trends in the past two years are new energy, one is intelligence, and now if any new car conference does not mention automatic driving and smart cockpits, it seems that they cannot be on the table.
A few days ago we analyzed volkswagen's IQ.DRIVE system, at that time to evaluate this system is still a traditional OEM deep imprint, then relative to volkswagen more luxurious BMW brand can hand over an answer in this change, this article we will take BMW assisted driving system pro as an example, to see if the king of this old era, the answer given in the new era is bright.
1. BMW Autonomous Driving Assistance System Pro
Many people know BMW's driver assistance system, which should be around the 2020 Guangzhou International Auto Show, bmw not only unveiled a number of blockbuster new cars (such as BMW's most important model BMW ix3 that year), but also brought this set of automatic driving assistance technology to the front of the stage.
If you push the timeline a little further, in fact, BMW's system has been certified by authoritative institutions: in the Euro NCAP (European New Car Safety Evaluation Association) driver assistance evaluation, the new BMW 3 series of self-BMW driving assistance system Pro won the highest "VERY GOOD" rating, scoring even more than Tesla's FSD3.0, as shown in the following figure:
(Assistance capacity: 82% Security support: 90%)
At present, BMW's system has been widely used in sedans, coupes and sports utility vehicles, suitable for internal combustion engine, hybrid and pure electric different drive modes of the model, specific models include: BMW X7, BMW X6, BMW X5, BMW X3, BMW 8 Series double door / four-door / convertible coupe, BMW 7 Series, BMW 6 Series GT, BMW 5 Series Long Wheelbase Edition, BMW 4 Series Coupe, BMW 3 Series standard wheelbase / long wheelbase, and pure electric BMW iX3.
In this article, we will use bmw ix3 as the carrier to talk to you about BMW's automatic driving assistance system pro.
2. BMW automatic driving assistance system pro detailed explanation - hardware
When the BMW ix3 was launched, we used to say that it was a very important model, first, it was the first global model made in China; second, it was the first model equipped with the fifth-generation eDrive electric drive technology as standard; third, it was the first pure electric vehicle equipped with BMW's self-driving assistance system Pro as standard.
The standard automatic driving assistance system Pro system of the whole system is not only the general trend of the change of the times, but also the determination of BMW to face change, so is the answer amazing? Without further ado, let's officially begin.
Talk about the automatic driving assistance system, the old rule is naturally to start from the sensor, we inquired about bmw's official information, BMW's set of assisted driving system used in the hardware sensors are as follows, including: 1 forward three-eye camera, 1 automatic driving status detection camera, 4 surround view cameras, 5 millimeter wave radar (1 long 4 short), 12 ultrasonic sensors, a total of 25 sensors.
Among them, long-distance millimeter wave radar is mainly used for the identification of vehicles and obstacles in front (ACC adaptive cruise depends on it), short-distance millimeter wave radar is used for the identification of vehicles in adjacent lanes (turning warning depends on it), and cameras are mainly used for image recognition (front-looking tri-eye camera for assisting driving; automatic driving status detection camera is used to detect driver status; 4 surround view cameras are used for example, panoramic imaging and automatic parking), Ultrasonic radar is used for automatic parking (a fusion scheme with surround view cameras).
Processing this data is the Mobileye EyeQ4 chip, a visual soc that uses a 28nm process. Using 5 core processors (4 MIPSi-class cores and 1 MIPSm-class core), 6 VMP chips, 2 MPC cores and 2 PMA cores, the floating-point operation per second reaches 2.5TOPS and the power consumption is 3w.
Although the energy consumption performance is eye-catching, compared to the computing power of thousands of tops now, it is indeed a bit of a witch.
How to evaluate the hardware of this system? In this regard, we think we are still familiar with the traditional car company style, that is, to mature and reliable, not easy to try more radical technologies, such as lidar.
For comparison, the perception system Aquila equipped with NIO ET7 is equipped with 33 sensing hardware, including 11 8-megapixel high-definition cameras, 1 ultra-long-range high-precision lidar, 5 millimeter-wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radars, 2 high-precision positioning units, 1 vehicle-road co-sensing and 1 enhanced main-driver perception.
In addition, Xiaopeng P5, WM M7 and other new forces have also put lidar on the car, so only from the hardware side of the performance to evaluate, BMW's system configuration of hardware can only be decent.
Of course, the hardware only determines the foundation, the functions that can be achieved and the maturity, or the level of the main engine factory, we first say that the BMW ix3 this set of auxiliary driving system pro can achieve the function.
3. BMW automatic driving assistance system pro detailed explanation - function
According to the official statement, the system automatic driving assistance system pro equipped with BMW ix3 can realize the functions of assisted driving, traffic congestion assistance, lane change assistance, emergency stop assistance, speed limit recognition assistance, automatic parking, and tracking and reversing.
In fact, we simply put it into the category, mainly on two functions, one is the function of cruising, such as active cruise fixed speed, traffic congestion assistance, speed limit recognition assistance, lane change assistance;
The second is the safety function, such as forward collision warning and emergency braking assistance, emergency avoidance assistance, emergency stop assistance, lane correction assistance, side collision prevention assistance, lane change blind area warning, cross collision warning and rear car rear-end warning.
We will not say more about safety here, mainly talking about the function of cruising, remember that we expressed a point of view before. Generally speaking, the advanced driver assistance system has three basic skills: 1, ACC adaptive endurance; 2, LCC lane centering; 3, ALC to play steering lane change. It tests the sensor configuration of the vehicle, but also the identification, judgment and control behind the configuration.
So how does BMW's auto-assisted driving system pro perform?
4. BMW automatic driving assistance system pro detailed explanation - actual experience
First of all, let's talk about traffic congestion assistance, which allows the driver to release his hands from the steering wheel on high speeds and expressways with clear lane lines (that is, lane lines should be clear) and at speeds below 60 km/h, and let the vehicle follow the vehicle in front of him automatically.
Its opening method is also relatively simple, when the opening conditions are met, the automatic driving assistance system Pro will prompt you that the congestion assistance function is ready, and then press the operation to start the experience. After turning on, there are green cue lights on both sides of the steering wheel, and the camera at the top of the dashboard will capture the movement of your eyeballs, just look ahead, and the hand does not need to hold the steering wheel (but you still need to maintain attention, otherwise the system will prompt until you exit).
From the actual experience, this system can control the gap between the car and the car in front of the car around a body, and will not let others casually plug. The road is stop-and-go, acceleration and braking force is relatively soft, in line with most people's habits.
In addition, its cruise function, that is, ACC, on the highway, as long as you press the auxiliary function button on the left side of the steering wheel, the system will be turned on, and the camera and radar will be activated accordingly. Lane centering and adaptive cruise are also turned on, and after opening, it is also necessary to concentrate and cannot be operated off-hand.
By the way, there is a set button at the bottom left of the steering wheel of the BMW ix3, which is responsible for adjusting the speed to the maximum speed limit on the road in the Pilot state.
It is worth noting that the BMW ix3 is equipped with a capacitive steering wheel, which is different from tesla AP, NIO NP or Xiaopeng XP, and the steering wheel off warning of the latter three relies on torque sensing, that is, you must hold the steering wheel, and it also requires a certain amount of force.
When talking about Volkswagen IQ.DRIVE, we have said that the disadvantage of the torque steering wheel is that sometimes even if the hands are on the steering wheel, the system will still issue a warning to get out of the hand because it does not sense the force. At this time, the driver must hold the steering wheel with both hands and swing the steering wheel from side to side with a certain amount of force to get away from the warning. This is very impactful on the driving experience, so this gives the BMW ix3 an absolute positive rating.
When the speed operation is 70km/h, you can experience the next function - lane change assist.
Lane change assist is that when driving on a highway or similar highway road type, when the driver issues a lane change command, the vehicle can automatically detect the surrounding environment and change lanes when conditions permit.
To put it simply, if there is no incoming car behind the target lane or the distance between the vehicles is far, the vehicle will simply merge into the target lane and then continue to drive forward in the right direction; if there is a car behind the target lane, or the road marking is a solid line, the system will not execute the instruction to change lanes. If the vehicle behind the target lane accelerates while changing lanes, the system will terminate the lane change and the vehicle will return to the original lane to continue driving.
From the actual experience, the BMW ix3 system is still relatively "old driver", such as being able to complete the lane change smoothly, decisively and quickly in the distance between the vehicles behind the side, and for example, when the turn signal is hit, the vehicle real-time simulation system can quickly anchor the car in front of the target lane and make a deceleration change action according to the speed.
As for other configurations such as automatic parking, tracking and reversing, we will not explain them all. Overall it was in line with expectations, but there were still no big surprises.
Fifth, compare the Audi e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC
BMW ix3, Audi e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC is the answer to the German top three in the new energy era, and they are also equipped with their own auxiliary driving technology, we also make a horizontal evaluation of them here to see who is better and who is inferior.
As we all know, Audi's performance in automatic driving has always been quite eye-catching, as early as 2017, it launched the first L3-level autonomous driving model Audi A8, but because of domestic regulations, Audi e-tron can only have L2 level assisted driving in China.
At the level of driving hardware, the Audi e-tron uses zFAS chips, equipped with 12 ultrasonic radars, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 6 cameras. Functionally, it can realize functions such as ACC adaptive cruise, LKA lane keeping assistance, and road traffic sign recognition.
In terms of experience, it can be said that the performance of the e-tron has advantages and disadvantages, and the favorite point is that the Audi e-tron also uses a HOD capacitive sensing steering wheel, which also makes the actual experience when the adaptive cruise + lane keeping function is turned on greatly improved.
The hardware solution used by Mercedes-Benz EQC is also the most mainstream millimeter wave radar + monocular camera, including a millimeter wave radar, 6 cameras and 12 ultrasonic radars. Features include full-speed adaptive cruise, lane keeping, lane departure assist, and more.
So from the overall point of view, whether it is BMW ix or Audi e-tron or Mercedes-Benz EQC, the answer given by the German luxury brand Three Musketeers in the era of intelligence does not have a strong difference. Compared with new forces such as Xiaopeng and Tesla, the gap still exists, such as Xiaopeng is realizing urban pilot assistance.
Write at the end:
Remember when writing the Volkswagen IQ.DRIVE article, we said that the answer given by Volkswagen in the new era can not make us feel amazing, here will be used in BMW's automatic driving assistance system is not excessive, but as we said last time, in the new era, consumers' demand for vehicles has become more, the brand influence of luxury brands is also declining, if the traditional OEMs turn around too slowly, who occupies the c position in the next decade is really uncertain.